Fake Ads on Wechat

WeChat the chinese most popular instant messaging service in China, is likely to lose its luster as users complain of being bombarded with misleading advertisements and information overload.

Fake adverstisment

The situation came to public attention when a business account set false advertisements on “Moments”, one of the main functions integrated in WeChat which allows users to upload photos and share their daily lives by texts.

On Monday, authorities in Chongqing broke a case in which a “travel agency” has told his followers on WeChat to “Like” its ads to win a free Hong Kong and Macau trip, which was later proved be misleading.

Where?

Similar cases were reported in the provinces of Guangdong, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Jiangsu of unscrupulous businessmen trying to attract customers with promotions for coveted items, they have failed to deliver.

WeChat, developed by the Internet giant Tencent, allows people to send text, photos, videos and voice messages on mobile phones. The application won a legion of fans in China thanks to its convenience, to reach 600 million users since its launch in 2011.

With fake ads, the information on the application overload is causing some users want to escape the flood of daily annoyances.

Beijing said he receives “tons of messages” from his colleagues in the focus groups WeChat, even on weekends.

Wei said he spends about an hour a day responding to messages from his colleagues, and to check WeChat every few minutes because the messages from his boss may be among the sea of ​​notifications.

I feel as if I had been kidnapped by WeChat.

Wei is not the only feeling bombarded by the application user. In early February, Huang Zhen, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, has caused a buzz on the Internet when it announced it would abandon all discussion groups WeChat and “try to find some inner peace. ”

Survey about Wechat

In a survey conducted in March by a Shanghai newspaper, two thirds of respondents feeling of being “kidnapped” by WeChat, but most have chosen to put up with the barrage of messages and information.

“The “Moments” section WeChat, for example, has declined in popularity since it became a place for people to either share or advertisements Chicken Soup for the Soul-type items.” view more here

“My WeChat ‘Moments’ are essentially spammed by them every day, which is pretty boring,” a user named WeChat screen “HXfengai” said.

As calls for change mounting WeChat teams must adjust their design of products and services to break the bottleneck and retain users, said Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia research.

Zhang said that the development teams WeChat should redouble their efforts to take into account user feedback and try to understand what they really need.

“It is difficult to say how loyal users will remain WeChat, but if the company can make adjustments according to the specific needs of users, it can help keep many users,” he said.